Arranging the music of 2 songs...

I'll be totally honest: I often find the Chocobo theme to be, quite frankly, Chocobnoxious. It certainly seems to have a time and a place, and if you're not feeling chipper and perhaps a bit whimsical, it can have the approximate effect of combining extensive dental work with a migraine headache. That being said, I approach Chocobo ReMixes with a cautious optimism, as many artists to date have been able to do some pretty cool stuffs with Big Bird's little ditty. The latest to join the ranks of yellow avian musicality is BGC, whose acronymized moniker could easily be misconstrued as "Big Giant Chocobos". Jimmy writes:

"...I have a few of these FFA remixes that have been growing stagnant for the past year, so I thought I would go ahead and share the Kenji-Ito-love. This is a well-known tune that has earned it's keep in the FF series. Source is tracks 9 & 10 of the .gbs file, I present the Chocobo theme(s), the hatching and the riding music. This mix is fairly short and sweet. Not a whole lot of deviation as far as arrangement goes, but enough that it's not just simply an upgrade in sound quality."

Speaking of .gbs files and chiptunes in general, we've been working on getting more of them directly available here on OCR; there's a dozen new RSNs for SNES games, we've switched our Genesis files from RGM (rar'd GYM) to zipped VGM, and we've added zipped VGMs for Sega Master System titles as well, where available. All of these formats are playable with Chipamp and other players as well. Good stuff. Jimmy does them chiptunes sweet helpings of aural justice with an electronica arrangement that doesn't make the mistake of taking the theme too seriously and incorporates some fun hits and underlying patterns as the mix progresses. That's key, as this is one theme that essentially any mix is going to end up repeating several times, making monotony a deadlier pitfall than usual. BGC's Pitfall Harry swings deftly over this and other risky substances without landing on scorpion, retrieving diamond in the process. Jon jigged:

"holy crap, you actually had me unconciously tapping my foot about a minute into this. very creative, very unique. you should be proud of this."

Jon's foot rarely puts out without a lot of coaxing and quality time, so clearly said pride is warranted. The arrangement doesn't have lofty aspirations of turning the Chocobo theme into a new anthem for our generation, nor does the artist mistakenly operate under the belief that the success he's had with a three minute track could have been extended to a six-minute opus. This is a short, sweet, but most importantly fun take on a well-known melody, and Jimmy's jam-packed it with a variety of cross-panned, filtered, and otherwise lovingly modulated tidbits.

Discussion

Definitely a fun remix, but what else can you do with a source
like this? Great percussion writing here, there's some really
cool rhythms in there. Awesome bass writing. Only criticism I can
think of would be the transitions between A and B parts, but
that's not a big deal. Especially with all the other stuff that's
happening here. Typical BGC stuff, a lot of stuff going on, and
everything has its own space.

Ends a bit suddenly, but you gotta love that chirp with delay.

edit 12-22-09:

What, I reviewed this a few weeks ago and didn't then realize
this is my new single favorite mix? Crazy fun stuff, despite the
painful chirps (on headphones at least). Love the bass and
rhythms. Awesome stuff.

It takes a ton of work to keep this over-mixed relic fresh, and I
have to say that this is a pretty creative remix. I'll focus on
what great about the new, since the source is so familiar.

Strong counterpoint changes that tie into a new section all work
really well together with a energetic bassline and an entire
kitchen sink full of percussion. Of course the Hoo hoos get most
of the attention, but where is even a samba whistle and a
multitude of toms.

I can understand many people being sick to death of the theme,
but give this one a listen, it's about as good as the chocobo
theme is going to sound.

Starts off really bad, reminiscent of the old OCR days' "bad
music". But once it picks up the beginning has more meaning. It's
all really experimental sounding, in terms of the combination of
instruments/samples. I can't really notice anything technically
wrong, except that the buildup is kind of long. Wait, that's not
technical, but it should be! Anyway, it doesn't really bother me
anymore, but I have my doubts of how many people would like what
they're hearing at first.

The chirping at the beginning has too much treble. The log drum
sample is the first sound that sounds really authentic. All of it
should have been longer and more arranged. The background is
really arranged, in almost an appropriate way to give a new style
to a well-known, now-tired source tune. But the melody is still
there, too much the same. The ending is good, the best part,
except for the lead-out (rephrases the part that's been played
the same, throughout the whole), but maybe one more original
section in the middle would have sealed the deal to perfection.
It makes me wish the whole song had the ending's energy. I love
me some energetic music, but I'll have my doubts with future
listens of this. But not until I give it some more chance! Just
like how the song's given all the select semi-juxtaposed samples
a chance to sing in harmony while they're neglected in other
people's songs =(

Very enjoyable mix. One thing that I really enjoyed is at the
beginning the melody is being played with a harmony set at a
fifth. I was expecting this to be the same at the end when the
theme restated itself, but instead it was replaced by a much more
prominent (string?) sound with no harmonization. Very skillfully
executed. Thank you for submitting it.

Very energetic and light-hearted. It's kind of a break from all
the recent epic and/or operatic stuff we've been getting. This
certainly uses a lot of interesting sounds and ethnic instruments
which makes me think it won't sound too out of place on one of
those Korg workstation music demos.

Wow, this remix is so exciting. I liked the snare roll you threw
in at the beggining. I was like "OMG, what will ever happen
next?". I LOVE the rainforest drum vibe going on. This is such a
nice remix. It's got Chocobo written all over it. Wark!

Ah, to go back in history to the place where the first chocobo
originated, quite the historical moment for us FF lovers.
Although that there is plenty of chocobo remixes on this site, it
can never hurt to listen to one more.

When it comes down to this one, it took its time to build up
enough energy to start. When the conga drums began to make their
move at 0:30, it caught my interest immediately, which made me
want to listen to the rest. I'm glad that I did.

I don't know what kind of instruments it is, I believe it's pan
flutes, but no matter what the case, it sounds awesome with the
other african samples. I like it how the instruments are being
added one by one, it starts with just a lonely synth and a small
drumroll, and then ends with something that could resemblance a
brazilian football game.

Whoo, my computer's speakers are again expressing distaste for
the music I listen to.

I have to agree that the Chocobo theme is quite inane. Great
intro, but this track still too repetitive to me (I did like
Bionic Electronica tho now that I think about it, and that was
really repetitive). I want to like this more, because percussion
heavy tracks always rule.

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